Titans work out 2 QBs on Tuesday; could Marcus Mariota be traded?

The Tennessee Titans worked out two quarterbacks on Tuesday. Could this mean the end of Marcus Mariota’s time in Tennessee?

With talk of trading quarterback Marcus Mariota slowly but surely increasing since his Week 6 benching in favor of Ryan Tannehill, the Tennessee Titans have just about poured gasoline on the flames of the talk that the fifth-year quarterback out of Oregon could be on the move before today’s trade deadline.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Titans worked out two free agent quarterbacks on Tuesday.

Johnson was drafted in the fifth round of the 2008 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers out of the University of San Diego, and has played for 12 different teams, most recently with the Detroit Lions, who released him on September 17th.

After four seasons with Old Dominion, Heinicke went undrafted in the 2015 NFL Draft, but was picked up by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent, spending his first two seasons as the backup quarterback.

He’s also spent time with the New England Patriots and Houston Texans before being claimed off waivers by the Panthers in 2018.

He started one game in place of an injured Cam Newton in Week 16  against the Atlanta Falcons Falcons, which he lost. Heinicke suffered an elbow injury which cost him Week 17 last year, and was cut at the end of training camp this season.

What’s most notable about working out both Johnson and Heinicke is that neither of them are practice squad eligible, having both played more than three seasons in the league.

The Titans only have Tannehill and Mariota on the roster, and no quarterbacks on the practice squad. Logan Woodside, who spent this past preseason with the team, is currently on practice squad injured list.

The team could just be looking to add a third quarterback, considering the injury history of both Tannehill or Mariota, but that seems unlikely.  It seems much more likely that the Titans could be moving Mariota right before today’s trade deadline at 3 P.M. CDT.

Nothing is official as of yet, and we are left only to speculate on what this means, but if the Titans’ front office’s intention was to stir the pot and get Titans fans riled up, they sure have done a great job of doing so.